


A Soul as White as Heaven

by Mara



Category: Power Rangers Dino Thunder
Genre: Multi, Soulmates, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:09:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22326112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mara/pseuds/Mara
Summary: When a new Ranger morphs, the rest of the team knows.
Relationships: Trent Fernandez-Mercer/Kira Ford/Ethan James/Conner McKnight
Comments: 12
Kudos: 39
Collections: Alpha's Magical Fic Exchange 2019





	A Soul as White as Heaven

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jen425](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/gifts).



> I’ve never written this particular trope before, so…here goes nothing! This fic vaguely follows the canon timeline but don’t think too hard about it or you’ll get a headache.

Kira loved Conner and Ethan, no question. She was sure she would have loved them even if she _hadn’t_ felt a weird pull in her chest the first time they morphed. They were good guys who she was watching mature in leaps and bounds almost every single day.

Yep, she definitely loved them. The problem was that she didn’t always _like_ them.

For example, she was trying to study for her calculus test and they had spent the last _half hour_ arguing about some stupid game. Twisting in her seat on the couch, she glared at them over the back. “Ugh, shut up!”

Conner smirked at her. “No, you shut up.”

Rolling her eyes, Kira put down her textbook. “If you’re going to be like that, you should go home. Seriously, guys.”

“We—”

Kira didn’t hear the end of whatever Conner was saying. Or maybe he’d stopped talking. She wasn’t sure, because she was too busy falling back on the couch trying to focus on breathing. “That…” Hand to her chest, she groped for words. “That felt like…”

And then Conner was on one side of her and Ethan on the other, each gripping a hand. “Yeah,” Ethan said. “It did.”

“How?” Conner asked, sounding winded like he’d been running sprints all day.

“We need to talk to Dr. O,” she said.

* * *

They made excuses to Kira’s mom and jumped in Conner’s car. As soon as they were far enough away from the house, Ethan lifted his morpher to his mouth. “Dr. O?”

It took a moment for him to answer. “You felt that too?” 

The three of them exchanged glances. “Yeah. Are you at home?”

“Are you okay? Do you need—”

“We’re fine,” Kira said, leaning over. “Honest.”

“Okay. Yes, I’m at home. I’ll be waiting for you downstairs.”

Kira nodded at Ethan and Conner pushed down harder on the accelerator.

* * *

Dr. O met them in the Batcave…okay, his lab, whatever he wanted to call it. Anxiously, he looked between all three of them. “I thought it wasn’t…but if you felt it too, then it must be.”

Hand drifting to her chest again, Kira shook her head. “It felt like when we morphed. When we, uh, found each other. And when you morphed the first time.”

Dr. O nodded. “We have another teammate,” he said after a moment. “Another soulmate.”

“Ugh, don’t call it that,” Conner said, reddening the way he always did. “You’re our teacher.”

Dr. O chuckled. “I promise I won’t try to kiss any of you. That wouldn’t appeal to me any more than it would you. I told you that some teams are purely platonic and some are a mix. If I was romantically involved with every member of every team I’d been on, I don’t know when I’d have time to fight.”

Kira giggled as Conner mimed making himself vomit. Dr. O shook his head at the theatrics.

Flinging himself into a chair, Ethan spun in a circle. “When I get my own lab, I’m gonna figure out what’s going on with this team soulmate thing.”

“That’s what Billy always said once we realized the connection we all had. Something more urgent has always come up, though.” Dr. O shrugged as he went over to the monitors. “We’re going to have to figure out where this new teammate is.”

“It’s weird,” Kira said as Dr. O sat down. “I couldn’t have imagined being with you two before, but now…there’s someone else?”

“They might not…” Ethan paused.

“We get it,” Conner said hastily. “Let’s not jump to conclusions.”

“Says Mr. Jumps to Conclusions,” Kira said as Conner tried to swat her head.

* * *

It took time to find their new teammate. Time during which Dr. O looked more and more concerned and could sometimes be found absently rubbing at the center of his chest while staring at nothing.

Kira knew they were all feeling it. There was something wrong with their missing piece. Something that felt off. Or broken. Hurt.

Yeah, hurt was the right word. Shivering, Kira leaned closer to Conner, who absently put an arm around her. Ethan smiled at them from his computer and she could feel it like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day.

They had to find this person. He or she needed them.

That conclusion was only strengthened when they finally found the White Ranger and he attacked them. Trying to talk to him, convince him to stay, only made him angrier.

The team retreated to Hayley’s to recuperate, while she made a giant pot of chili to feed them.

“Kat called,” Hayley said as they came through the door. 

“Ah.” Dr. O slumped into a chair.

“Apparently you weren’t exactly subtle today. If you don’t call her back, she’ll fly out here and personally try to capture this new Ranger. You know that, right?” Hayley waved a spoon at him and pointed toward the phone.

“Yeah, I know.” With a sigh, he reached out and grabbed the phone.

“So whipped,” Conner said with a giggle, which died out as both Kira and Ethan gave him death stares. “Um…not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

“Terrible save, dude,” Ethan said, kicking his ankle.

“Kira?” Hayley called. “Will you come help me a minute?”

“Sure.” Kira levered herself off the floor, leaving her boys to lean against each other and look exhausted. 

Hayley handed Kira plates from the cabinet. “How are you all holding up?” she asked softly.

Kira shrugged. “Not great.”

Glancing around the room, Hayley sighed. “Yeah, I got that.”

“Whoever he is, this is hurting him.”

“Which means it’s hurting you.”

Kira just nodded as she set out glasses and raided the fridge for cheese and sour cream.

“We’ll figure it out.”

Managing a smile, Kira found herself privately doubting. Or as privately as she could, given the emotional bleed between the members of her team. But they chose not to call her on it, which she appreciated.

* * *

The whole mess with Dr. O getting encased in amber and then turning invisible didn’t exactly help anyone’s mood. They were all astounded to find that their very angry and hurt teammate was Trent Fernandez of all people.

And Trent didn’t want them. He rejected them in the harshest of terms and they could feel it through the bond, even as he said he didn’t want that bond.

It took all of Kira’s will to stay upright as he lashed out. “How dare he?” she screamed when he was gone, forcing them to cover their ears.

To everyone’s surprise, the first to hug her was Dr. O. “He can’t help it,” he said.

She struggled out of the hug, pushing him back. “What?”

Dr. O rubbed his temples, looking weary and even older than she knew he was. “I’ve never felt it from this side of things but I understand now.”

“Understand _what?_ ” Conner was pacing back and forth, his fists clenching and unclenching.

“Oh shit,” Ethan said. 

“Language,” Dr. O said automatically. 

“What are you talking about?” Conner growled, skidding to a halt in front of Dr. O.

“Trent’s being like, mind-controlled or something, isn’t he?” Ethan asked. “Like you were when you were the Green Ranger.”

It took Kira a long moment to remember what Ethan was talking about, but then it all came back. The Ranger history lesson. Rita controlling him and making him fight the first Earth Ranger team. Making him fight his friends. 

“Oh,” she said, wrapping her arms around herself. “That’s why he hurts so much.” Dr. O nodded and Kira flung herself back into the hug. “We’re going to help him,” she said firmly.

He nodded, holding her tight.

* * *

It should have been easy once they found Trent, in the way her bond with Ethan and Conner was easy. Even with Dr. O, which should have been weird and awkward, it was instantly easy once he became a member of the team. He was just…there. Protective and kind of dad-like (although she’d die before she said that aloud).

But whatever was controlling Trent was still fighting it. They could feel little jagged bits of emotion from him and knew he was still in pain but he refused to let them in. Or maybe he couldn’t. Kira cried almost every night, Conner and Ethan holding her while they tried to keep their parents from asking intrusive questions they couldn’t answer.

It hurt the others too but they were all trying to be stupid and manly about it. Dr. O was most willing to be openly upset but Conner regressed to his most chauvinist and obnoxious half the time and Ethan had his head down over his computer the rest of the time.

Hayley hovered over all them, looking helpless and upset. She couldn’t feel what they felt but the problem wasn’t exactly difficult to see.

Trent avoided them at school and fought them when he encountered them outside of school. Every battle hurt more. Having him so close but unwilling to come with them was the worst. 

After weeks of this, even Kira was wondering if it was too late. “Maybe there’s no good left in him,” she whispered to Conner and Ethan over smoothies.

They didn’t say anything, but she knew they had already reached that conclusion, especially after he’d tricked all of them into thinking he was free and then destroyed their dino cycles. The only reason they hadn’t given up entirely was that she hadn’t given up…at least not quite.

It was fortunate that they were all in Dr. O’s lab when the unexpected happened, because all of them collapsing in unison at school would have been the talk of the town. Dr. O and Ethan were in the middle of some ridiculous argument about their powers and Conner was laughing at them. Kira was just about to walk over and referee when she felt it.

It was like something squeezing her brain tighter and tighter and she slid to the floor, unable to control her muscles. Just as the pain reached unbearable, it was gone as quickly as it came.

For a moment, she felt Trent and shock and then the wall between them slid down again. Kira whimpered in pain as he disappeared.

“What the fuck was that?” Conner said, his voice tight as he pulled himself up using a table.

Dr. O levered himself up from the floor with a groan. “If I’m right…something good.”

“And if you’re not right?” Ethan asked, flopping over so he lay on his back.

Dr. O didn’t respond and then there was a monster to fight. Kira and Ethan and Conner went to fight it, because what else was there to do?

* * *

Coming back to the lab to find Trent standing there was startling. They knew something had happened, given the strong reaction they’d felt from Dr. O, but this definitely wasn’t what they expected. Kira was torn between punching Trent and hugging him, but given what had happened last time she trusted his change of heart…

“Trent, remember what I said,” Dr. O said, walking to stand next to him.

Nodding, Trent took a deep breath. “What Mesogog did…well, when it went wrong, it shattered the dark coating on the Dino Gem. I’m in control now.” And Kira felt the wall between them creak open. She could feel his pain and anger and everything that had been there before, but also his fear that they would reject him.

Nobody was surprised that Kira was the first to run over and hug him. She could feel tears on her face, but she wasn’t embarrassed at all because it felt _so good_ to finally have his arms around her. This was where he was supposed to be.

Ethan came over and with a sigh, leaned against Trent’s side. “Ugh, mushy stuff.”

“You love mushy stuff,” Kira said through her tears.

Trent laughed and she could feel it in his chest and in his heart. Apparently he also loved mushy stuff.

It took another long minute before she could feel Conner give up and lean against Trent’s other side. “Idiot,” Conner said.

“Yeah.”

“Our idiot, though,” Kira said firmly.

Trent nodded.

* * *

Kira had never been more grateful for the bond between them than when Zeltrax showed up with a duplicate White Ranger, trying to trick them into thinking Trent had betrayed them again.

She felt all of her teammates automatically reach out for Trent, who was startled and _definitely_ wasn’t the White Ranger in front of them.

But the bond didn’t solve everything.

For example, it didn’t reveal to them that Mesogog was also Trent’s dad. Which nearly broke all of them. Kira understood why he hadn’t wanted to say anything. Even with the depth of their bond, how could he just give up on the man who’d taken him in when his parents died?

But she could also feel Conner and Ethan and Dr. O’s pain at the lie of omission. Sometimes she really hated being a Ranger. There was a monster and they had to fight it, because that’s what they did, complicated emotional situations or not. 

When the monster was defeated and they had given up their powers and discovered that Mesogog and Anton Mercer were separated, there was a lot of hugging (and kissing once Dr. O was gone).

Kira had once asked Dr. O what happened when a team was no longer Rangers. “Does this whole soulmate thing just…go away?” she asked, slumping on the sofa across from him.

He looked past her for a moment, a tiny smile on his face. “No, no it doesn’t.”

She breathed a sigh of relief.

“It does change.” He focused back on her, serious. “It’s never exactly the same afterward. Not when the power has moved on. And you’ll need to be prepared for that. Some teams, well, some teams take it hard and it hurts them.”

Kira kind of wanted to ask but kind of didn’t, from the look on his face.

“But if you all work together, it’ll be okay. It settles into the back of your mind and they’re always there.” He chuckled quietly. “The back of my mind is a busy place.”

She laughed, but also vowed that her team would be okay.

In the wreckage of Reefside, Kira felt the change in their bond. She could still feel them, but Dr. O was right and it wasn’t the same. It wasn’t as strong, as immediate, but they were there and they were precious to her.

Yeah, there was no question that Kira loved Conner and Ethan and Trent.

“Hey, now that Mesogog is gone, maybe we can finally get to some serious making out without being interrupted.” Conner snickered and smacked Ethan and Trent on the back.

Sighing, Kira rubbed her forehead. She definitely loved them, even if sometimes she didn’t like them all that much.

—end—


End file.
